Source: Insurance & Financial Advisor, December 11, 2012 Maryland’s Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative Advisory Commission recently held its first vote, and endorsed four recommendations including bonds and self-insurance if hydraulic drilling is allowed in Western Maryland. The Cumberland Times-News reported the commission endorsed four financial safeguards when drilling for natural gas, known as “fracking”: […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 4, 2012 By: Elizabeth A. Holden, Hodgson Russ LLP A new Market Barometer survey published by Turner Construction Company, the largest green builder in the United States, provides an updated look on sustainability practices in new building projects. The study, which included a survey of more than 700 executives from a wide […]

Source: http://www.ohio.com, December 9, 2012 By: Bob Downing KENSINGTON: The hill tops in southwest Columbiana County off state Route 644 are under attack. Construction equipment is turning a former farm two miles east of Kensington into a natural gas-processing facility that is to open by next May. It is mostly a ground-clearing operation in Hanover […]

Source: Business Wire, November 28, 2012 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com Fitch Ratings estimates industry asbestos reserves to be deficient by $2 billion to $8 billion at year-end 2011. Asbestos reserves make up approximately 4% of total property/casualty industry reserves with approximately 50% of reserves concentrated in five insurers. In a new report, Fitch examines a range […]

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press, November 23, 2012 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com A man who chose the cheap way to tear down an old textile mill in East Chattanooga and exposed a neighborhood to asbestos will be allowed to appeal his four-year sentence on the taxpayers’ dime — at least for now. Don Fillers, while awaiting […]

Read here about a state panel in Maryland that may require drillers to have pollution insurance.  

Source: http://construction.com, October 11, 2012M At a national meeting today of the BIMForum in Tacoma WA, McGraw-Hill Construction presented highlights of its new research showing the rapid advance of Building Information Modeling (BIM) usage by architects, engineers, contractors and owners in North America. Comparing results from its similar research in 2007 and 2009, McGraw-Hill Construction […]

Source: http://www.abc.org, October 17, 2012 At an Oct. 11 national meeting of the BIMForum in Tacoma, Wash., McGraw-Hill Construction presented new research showing that 74 percent of contractors are now using Building Information Modeling (BIM). The report also showed that BIM usage among architects, engineers, contractors and owners in North America is at 71 percent, […]

Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA), October 2, 2012 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com Twelve years ago, the U.S. Green Building Council launched a rating system called LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, hoping that architects, engineers, designers and real estate firms would improve energy efficiency and increase the use of recycled materials and nontoxic […]

  Source: Dominion Post (Morgantown, WV), September 30, 2012 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com Two Wetzel County families suing Chesapeake Appalachia in federal district court for trespass regarding gas wells on their land have lost their cases and appealed them to the next level. Martin and Lisa Whiteman, of Silver Hill, and Dewey and Gay Teel, of […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, August 7, 2012 By: Andrew R. Kwiatkowski and Douglas J. Feichtner, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP If a firm states that a construction project possesses sustainable features or energy-efficient attributes relative to traditional practices, certain risk mitigation issues and practices must be addressed. Green construction claims differ from conventional claims in three key areas: relatively […]

Read here about an air quality study that has begun in a Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania.